I.

Introduction

Babylon (Babylonian, Bāb-ilim or Babil, “Gate of God”), one of the most important cities of the ancient world, whose location today is marked by a broad area of ruins east of the Euphrates, 90 km (56 mi) south of Baghdad, Iraq. Babylon was the capital of Babylonia in the 2nd and 1st millennia bc. In antiquity the city profited from its position on the main overland trade route connecting the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea.

II.

Early History

The site was settled in prehistoric times, and is first mentioned in documents in cuneiform script dating from the late 3rd millennium bc. About 2200 bc it was known as the site of a temple, and during the 21st century bc it was subject to the nearby city of Ur. Babylon had become an independent city state by 1894 bc, when the Amorite Sumu-abum founded a dynasty there. This dynasty reached its apogee under Hammurabi. In 1595 bc the city was captured by the Hittites, and shortly thereafter it came under the rule of the Kassites (c. 1590-1155 bc). The Kassites transformed the city state of Babylon into the capital of Babylonia, a region encompassing southern Mesopotamia. The city served as the administrative centre of a large kingdom. Later, probably in the 12th century bc, it also became the kingdom’s religious centre, when its principal god, Marduk, was elevated to the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon.

In 1158 the Kassite dynasty fell to the Elamites from the east, and Babylon was governed by several short-lived dynasties until the late 8th century bc, when it came under the influence of Assyria. Sennacherib, despairing of controlling the local tribesmen, destroyed the city in 689 bc; his successor, Esarhaddon (reigned 681-669 bc), had it rebuilt. In 625 bc the Chaldeans, led by Nabopolassar, took control of the city.

III.

The Neo-Babylonian City and Its Decline

Nabopolassar founded the Neo-Babylonian dynasty, and his son Nebuchadnezzar II extended the kingdom as far as Palestine and Syria. The capital at Babylon was refurbished with new temple and palace buildings, extensive fortification walls and gates, and paved processional ways; it was the largest city of the known world, covering more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres).

The Neo-Babylonian Empire was of short duration. In 539 bc Cyrus the Great captured Babylon and incorporated Babylonia into the newly founded Persian Empire. Under the Persians, Babylon served briefly as the official residence of the Crown prince, until a local revolt in 482 led Xerxes I to raze the temples and ziggurat, or temple tower, and to melt down the statue of the patron god Marduk.

Alexander the Great captured the city in 330 bc and planned to rebuild it as the capital of his vast empire, but he died before he could carry out his plans. After 312 bc, Babylon was for a while used as a capital by the Seleucids, who established themselves as Alexander’s successors. When the new capital of Seleucia on the Tigris was founded in the early 3rd century bc, however, most of Babylon’s population was moved there. The temples continued in use for a time, but the city lost its importance and had almost disappeared before the rise of Islam in the 7th century ad.

IV.

Topography

The topography of Babylon is best known from the occupation levels of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty, as excavated by Robert Koldewey and other German archaeologists before World War I. At that time the Euphrates divided the city into two unequal parts: the old quarter, with most of the palaces and temples, on the east bank; and the New City on the west bank. A prominent place near the centre of the city was occupied by Esagila, the temple of Marduk; just to the north of that was the temple-tower of Etemenanki (the ziggurat), an edifice seven storeys high, popularly associated with the Tower of Babel. A cluster of palaces and fortifications was found in the north-western corner of the old city; the German excavators identified one ruin in this area with the foundations of the Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which Nebuchadnezzar II built for his Median wife. Nearby was the Ishtar Gate, with its lions and dragons in brightly coloured glazed brick. The main Processional Way passed through this gate; it was the route followed by religious and political leaders during the New Year festival ceremonies. Nine more major gates pierced the massive inner fortification walls of the city, and from them led the roads to the principal settlements of Babylonia.